HINTER LANDS
HINTERLANDS Pierre Silverberg
‘Hinterlands’ is a photographic project that departs from the precarious situation of Doel, a village in the historic Flemish Polder. Enclosed between the ever-expanding Antwerp harbour and one of Belgian’s most prominent nucleair sites, the village has been threatened with demolition since the 1960‘s. This project differs from the classic photo documentary. Although the artist always works within the field of photography, the medium is often chosen in relation to the subject matter. In this case, the technique of the camera obscura has been ‘suggested by the given photographic situation in Doel’. In order to prevent access to the remaining houses, whose majority is now property of the Antwerp harbour, windows and doors have been sealed by wooden panels. In a way, the artist only perfects this situation by further darkening the rooms of the houses until they are completely lightproof. Light only enters though a tiny pinhole in one of the panels, impregnating with a negative image the opposite wall, covered with photographic paper. The house has become a camera and is capable of taking its ‘own’ image. This ‘protocol’ is repeated for each photograph. It aims at registrating the village in a direct and objective way. The only freedom the artist allows himself is the selection of the wall, or a part of it, that will determine the composition. The final result is closely related to landscape photography with its deep perspectives and a classical framing. Some views are almost banal, while others maps certain tensions. The physical and temporal aspect of the image’s production is closely related to its mimetics. Each negative is a series of physical photographic papers, the size of a wall, containing an enormous amount of information. This format also demands a long aperture. This notion of time can be related to the exposure of the latent images that have filled these houses for years and soon may change or disappear, which adds a certain notion of time. Contentwise, the project may be read as a metaphor for tendencies of globalisation and industrialisation but the artist has chosen not to portray the human side of the story. His method aims at a certain neutrality and only capts the images produced by the houses. Of course this position is sometimes difficult to maintain and political and social implications are never far off. Most exemplary is the fact that exactly those measures that were taken to occlude the houses, and by extension the whole village, are being used to docuemnt the situation. Text Tanja Boon
63, Scheldemolenstraat 2014 B/W analog print 203 x 152 cm
28, Pastorijstraat 2014 B/W analog print 243 x 182 cm
21, Hooghuisstraat 2014 B/W analog print 284 x 152 cm
Oude jongensschool 2014 B/W analog print 243 x 182 cm
5, Scheldemolenstraat 2014 B/W analog print 284 x 152 cm
81, Engelsesteenweg 2014 B/W analog print 203 x 213 cm
HIN LANDS
09.10.2014
NTER
9130 DOEL
2
2 B w 2
21, Hooghuisstraat 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 295 x 163 cm
63, Scheldemolenstraat 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 253 x 163 cm
5, Scheldemolenstraat 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 213 x 163 cm
Oude jongensschool 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 253 x 193 cm
2
2 B w 2
28, Pastorijstraat 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 253x 193 cm
81, Engelsesteenweg 2014 B/W analog print on white MDF panel 213 x 223 cm
Pierre Silverberg HINTERLANDS